Capabilities Approach

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THIS SYNOPSIS

HAS BEEN SUBMITTED BY

Ms. YUVINA GOYAL
ID: 214034

On 24.01.2016 (ECONOMICS-II)

During (Winter-semester) 2015-2016

FOR THE PAPER

ON

Topic:-  CAPABILITIES APPROACH : FEMININ PERSPECTIVE.

CAPABILITIES APPROACH: FEMININ PERSPECTIVE

SYNOPSIS

The gender perspective looks at the impact of gender on people's opportunities, social roles and interactions. Gender differences are social constructs, inculcated on the basis of a specific society's particular perceptions of the physical differences and the assumed tastes, tendencies and capabilities of men and women. In this paper, the author discusses the Amartya Sen’s ‘capability approach’ and how it applies in the context of feminine perspective. Sen has focused on the role of capabilities in demarcating the space within which quality of life assessments are made. Under this approach it is asked, whether the person capable of this, or not or what she is in a position to do (what her opportunities and liberties are). The intuitive idea behind the approach is twofold: first, that certain functions are particularly central in human life, in the sense that their presence or absence is typically understood to be a mark of the presence or absence of human life and second, there is something that it is to do these functions in a truly human way, not a merely animal way.

This paper, however, is highly grounded on the feminist theory of eminent scholar Martha Nussbaum’s argument, that, a universal approach is necessary to battle injustices against women and focuses on the lives of women. This task, has undertaken by Nussbaum by illustrating the fine line between the respect and preservation of a culture and the conflicting agenda it has in emancipating women from patriarchal structures. It is quite a unique matter to claim that certain very general values, such as the dignity of the person, the integrity of the body, basic political rights and liberties, basic economic opportunities, and so forth, are appropriate norms to be used in assessing women’s lives in developing countries.

Further, the major portion of this paper is devoted to discussion of the components and characteristics of the definite list of ten capabilities, contributed by Martha Nussbaum, as an extension to the Sen’s capability approach. This list of “normative things to-do” brings to light three categories of capabilities viz basic capabilities, internal capabilities and combined capabilities.

In the subsequent section, the above mentioned ‘ten capabilities’ are elaborated upon. Beginning from the Life, that incorporate the capability of taking birth and not dying prematurely, the capabilities of Bodily Health, Bodily Integrity, Affiliation, Play, Practical Reason, Emotions, Imagination, Thought and other Species are discussed and weighed against the existing statistics and trend, so as to gauge the gender bias if any.  The “capabilities approach” claims that a life short of any of these capabilities will fall short of being good human life. The list provided her is general, leaving room for plural specification and further negotiation. But like constitutional guarantees, it offers real guidelines than that offered by the focus on utility or resources.